Back to the Future 1999: Raining at the Same Time

"Oh, oh, oh!"

Amid the characteristic crowing of chickens in rural areas, Chen Xi rubbed his still dizzy head and woke up with a grim expression.

"I knock, I drank with that old man last night, and I think I got drunk and lost my mind."

He shook his head, as if to drive away the discomfort.

"Hahaha, young man. Are you talking about an old man like me?"

The old man's voice came from the other side of the room, and Chen Xi's hangover discomfort was instantly scared away by most of it.

"Ha, ha, old man. There you are."

"If I'm not here, where else can I be?"

The old man knocked on Chen Xi's head with the pipe in his hand, smiling. After this knock, Chen Xi realized that there seemed to be only one bed under him in the room, and he did not feel like he had slept in the same bed with anyone last night.

That is to say...

"I'm sorry, old man. Not only did I come to disturb you, but I also slept in your only bed. I made you suffer last night. Are you okay?"

Another blow from the pipe.

"You are such a young man, yet you are worried about an old man like me."

"Farmers' bodies aren't as fragile as you think. They can stay anywhere for one night. It's no big deal."

"It's our village. It's been a long time since we've had outsiders come here. It's rare to have someone come, especially a likable guy like you."

"I am an old man, I am happy."

The old man smiled and moved out a chair to sit opposite Chen Xi. He took out a spoonful of tobacco from his pocket, lit it, and started smoking.

"Tell me, what are you doing in this village? What do you want to know?"

"Last night I was so busy getting you drunk that I wasted my time bragging. Hahaha, I almost messed up."

Seeing the kind smile on the man's face, Chen Xi's heart finally settled down. Looking out the window, he saw ordinary farm work, as if the strange atmosphere last night was just an illusion.

"Thank you then."

"I'm a traveler. I heard that a country here was destroyed, so I wanted to come here to investigate."

"But I didn't do my homework beforehand and ended up lost here. I'm so grateful to the old man for rescuing me."

"That country is destroyed. There used to be a country here. It's just too far away from our village. We haven't had any contact for a long time. How could it be destroyed?"

The old man showed a slightly shocked expression on his face, but it didn't last long before he returned to the calmness of a farmer.

"Do you know how to get there?"

Chen Xi tentatively asked the question he wanted to know most at this moment.

The old man took a deep breath of cigarette and exhaled slowly.

"do not know."

Seeing Chen Xi showing a disappointed expression, the old man smiled and uttered the second half of the sentence.

"But the witch doctor in the village might know. Legend has it that he came from that country."

Chen Xi, having gained hope, immediately rushed forward, shook the old man's hand, and asked:

"Where is that witch doctor now? What kind of person is he?"

Another knock.

"If you're so eager to reveal your thoughts, you'll suffer a great loss later, young man."

"The witch doctor is in the house at the end of the village. You can find him by asking along the way."

"As for him, he's a man of few words. But his medical skills are truly miraculous. The medicines he mixes are things no one has ever seen before, but they're guaranteed to heal you. He can even cure minor ailments with just a touch."

"Thanks to him, the village has become much more active in the past two years."

After listening to the old man's description, Chen Xi couldn't help but feel a little confused, but the feeling of having found the direction still made him very happy.

"Thank you, old man!"

Leaving a purse behind, Chen Xi planned to open the door and leave.

"return!"

Chen Xi turned around in surprise, only to see the old man walking up to him angrily and stuffing something into his hand.

"When you're out and about, you need money to do anything! Here, if you really want to thank an old man like me, bring two bottles of good wine when you come back and have a drink with me!"

Chen Xi stood there in a daze, staring at the old man's kind smile. The kindness of this world came to him again.

Clutching the purse in his hand, Chen Xi bowed deeply to the old man, pushed open the wooden door again and set out to find the witch doctor.

……

Along the way, the kindness and simplicity of the villagers not only filled Chen Xi's empty stomach in the morning, but also soothed the boy's restless heart.

Standing in front of the witch doctor's door, Chen Xi recalled the kindness of the villagers along the way, and waves of warmth kept welling up in his heart.

However, when Chen Xi thought about the torrential rain that might come at any time and completely wash away this group of people, his heart ached.

"hateful!"

Angry at his own powerlessness, Chen Xi vented his emotions by punching the wooden door in front of him.

But he seemed to have forgotten that this was the wooden door where one could see the witch doctor when opened.

"squeak--"

The old wooden door emitted the same background music throughout the village.

It was not until this moment that Chen Xi realized what he had done. When he raised his head and was about to apologize, he saw the terribly depressed face of the person in front of him.

"Hi~?"

At this moment, Chen Xi still wanted to get away with it by putting on a playful smile, and took a step forward to close the distance. But it was obvious that the person in front of him would not give him this opportunity. He slammed the door shut and came towards him, almost bumping Chen Xi's nose.

"Oh no, it seems there's really no hope now."

"Hey, I told you that you're not reliable, but you didn't believe me."

In the morning, everyone usually went to work in the fields, so there were not many people around the witch doctor's house. So Dao Wu took every opportunity to start his usual ridicule of Chen Xi.

"Are you the type who will die if you don't talk for a while? Why did I wake up such an unlucky thing like you in the first place?!"

"Master, don't worry about him! Let's first think about how to calm Mr. Witch Doctor's anger."

"Ah, my little Anma is so considerate! Learn from the sword dance!"

Chen Xi's harsh rebuke only earned Dao Wu a disdainful sneer. Ever since this guy realized that there was no chance of him and Anma being together, he had completely stopped pretending and his venomous tongue had only gotten worse day by day.

……

"I'm so sorry, Mr. Witch Doctor! I was just immersed in my own world just now and didn't mean to offend you!"

No movement...

"It really doesn't work."

"Mr. Witch Doctor! I was introduced here by the old man at the village entrance. I really mean no harm. Please open the door!"

Still no movement...

"Damn it, this guy is really stubborn."

The continuous setbacks made Chen Xi start to curse under his breath in frustration. As he cursed, an idea came to his mind, and a pure smile immediately spread across his face.

"Cough cough."

"Respected mystic, Mr. Witch Doctor."

Chen Xi deliberately spoke in a quieter voice than the previous two times:

"You don't want your identity as a mystic to be known to others, do you?"

There were rustling noises in the house, and Chen Xi knew that the plan had worked.

"So you know what to do."

What followed was a long wait, but Chen Xi was not in a hurry.

The door opened, and the owner of the house had an even darker face than before, but Chen Xi didn't care. He still walked into the house with that playful smile on his face, and sat down in a random place, as natural as if he had returned home.

A chair was moved to the opposite side of Chen Xi, and the witch doctor sat down with a dark face. Seeing that Chen Xi had no intention of speaking at all, he finally lost his patience and spoke.

"Who are you? Where are you from? How do you know my identity?"

"One missing."

Chen Xi answered the witch doctor's words with a smile, but it was obvious that the other party could not keep up with Chen Xi's train of thought.

Looking at the witch doctor's clear and stupid eyes, Chen Xi also looked heartbroken.

"Three soul-searching questions! What a great way to ask questions, and you're actually missing one!"

The completely unimaginable answer made the witch doctor feel as if several more blue veins had grown on his head.

"So, may I ask you, what are the three questions of the soul?"

The witch doctor asked word by word, gritting his teeth, but Chen Xi continued to smile nonchalantly:

"Of course it depends on who you are, where you come from, and where you are going!"

Chen Xi completely ignored the witch doctor's increasingly dark face and continued with his propaganda.

"These are life's three ultimate questions. They're very important!"

The witch doctor slammed his fist on the table next to him, unable to bear it any longer.

"If you have nothing to do, please leave my clinic. You are not welcome here!"

"Hey, hey, don't ruin the atmosphere. It's not nice to fight."

"Since I made you angry just now, I'm just making a joke to liven up the atmosphere. Haha, don't be angry, don't be angry."

As soon as he saw that the situation was not right, Chen Xi immediately slid to his knees and played a move from his heart!

Taking out a large silver coin, Chen Xi began to explain the main purpose of his visit:

"I heard you were from that kingdom, so I wanted to ask you how to get there."

As soon as he heard the word "kingdom", the witch doctor's eyes, which followed the movement of the silver coin, immediately became sharp.

"Why are you asking this? Is it related to your knowing that I'm a mystic?"

"Hey, don't be nervous. The kingdom has been destroyed, and I just want to go there to do some research. Besides, I'm also an occultist."

Chen Xi casually threw out a wind blade and cut off the alopecia on the witch doctor's head.

"As for you..."

"You can use potions that ordinary people cannot understand, and you even have the ability to cure diseases with just a touch. If this is not a miracle, the best explanation is that you are a mystic."

The last four words were spoken word by word, each word making the man's face look even uglier.

"Do the villagers know about this?!"

Chen Xi shook his head, but this simple action caused the man in front of him to collapse powerlessly on the ground.

"I really don't want to. I really don't want to go back to those days."

The man in front of him finally let go of all his defenses, revealing his most helpless look, and began to cry out everything:

"It's not like I wanted to be a mystic! I was suddenly discovered, suddenly imprisoned, and suddenly lost everything I had!"

"I finally managed to escape from there. I ran day and night, terrified of returning. When I collapsed in the wilderness, it was this village that saved me."

"I...I just wanted to do something for them, to repay them. Is that wrong?"

The man who was originally half a head taller than Chen Xi was now kneeling in front of Chen Xi, crying like a child.

Since the day I was accepted into the village, the kindness of the villagers has only been able to cover up the painful memories of the past. The pain has been buried deeper and deeper, and the more I think about it, the more painful it becomes. The pain that has never had a way to express has finally found an outlet today.

Seeing the man crying like a tearful person in front of him, Chen Xi felt very uncomfortable. Even at such moments, his belief that Arcana was wrong would waver.

After listening to the man's story intermittently, Chen Xi just gave him a silent hug.

"It's okay. This village has accepted you. Now you have your own home. No one will hurt you here anymore."

The man finally stopped sobbing:

"No way."

"The road to the kingdom has been occupied by demons. It's absolutely impossible for the two of us to successfully break through."

"It's okay. You're the nurse and I'm the warrior. And I know more than one kind of mystical art."

The golden shield instantly enveloped the two of them, and the witch doctor revealed an expression of disbelief. Chen Xi, however, quite enjoyed this gaze.

"If you help me dispel the demons, I won't take any of the dropped materials. You can take them all."

"Besides that, I can also help you slowly get the villagers to accept your identity as a mystic. Even if you fail, you can still follow me and have a home of your own!"

Now is not a question of whether Arcana is right or wrong. This is the only way to choose. At least this person has been saved, right?

"But you have to promise me that after you defeat the demons, you will teach me the healing mystic arts!"

This was what Chen Xi discovered when he was tinkering with his abilities. It seemed that his mystical energy could be transformed and simulated into any form of mystical magic.

In other words, as long as he wanted, he could master all the mysterious arts in the world, and even create his own!

"Yes, I promise you."

The witch doctor adjusted his expression, smiled and shook hands with Chen Xi.

Just like that, the contract between the two of them was finalized in this small room.